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Al Qaeda emir Ayman al Zawahiri issued an audio statement urging jihadist groups in Syria to avoid "partisan fanaticism" and focus on their common enemies, to submit themselves to a shared sharia court with enforcement powers, and to feel free to name a leader for themselves. An opposition activist group claimed that 1,400 people have been killed in clashes between the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham and rebel forces over the past month. US Secretary of State Kerry called President Assad "the single biggest magnet for terrorists" and said Hezbollah is the "principal difference" in the current fighting in Syria. The Al Nusrah Front claimed two bombings in Hama and a rocket attack in Idlib.